In the years that followed Christ death, there was plenty of discord among the apostles, each wanting to claim supremacy over the other. The losers were branded heretics and their writings destroyed. Fortunately, some were saved.

1. Art: Nicole Lanza
Gnostics and Heretics
In Search of Happiness.

2. I believe that our objective in life is to be happy,
and that Spirituality and Jungian psychology,
my main areas of interest, can help us in this
search for happiness.
Roberto Lima Netto, Ph.D.
Stanford University

3. In the years that followed Christ
death, there was plenty of discord
among the apostles, each wanting
to claim supremacy over the other.

4. Saint Paul, who came late to the
group, was opposed by some and was
only accepted for his raising funds
capacity. After all, an infant church
needs funds to cover its costs.

5. The great number of ideas and
concepts that came out after the
death of Christ also hindered the
development of the Church.

6. The Old Testament registers many
patriarchs and prophets having
direct contacts with God through
dreams and visions.

7. Yahweh was a God that asked to be
loved, but should be feared; the
encounters with Yahweh were
seldom easy.

8. Jesus preached love. One did not have
to fear approaching Him. As a
consequence, the number of persons
striving to talk to this God of love
increased.

9. As a result, there appeared so
many ideas and concepts that it
was almost impossible to structure
the dogmas of the new church.

10. This gave rise to many writings
claiming contacts with Jesus thru
dreams or visions.

11. It would be difficult to consolidate a church
with so many differing ideas. Irenaeus, a
bishop from Lyon, was very active in the
second century combating what he called
heretics and Gnostics.

12. The solution for so many diverging ideas came in
the fourth century, when Constantine, Emperor
of the Roman Empire, embraced Christianity and
convened the Council of Nicaea (June, 325) to
settle the many issues that raged the church.

13. The Christian bishops chose the
dogmas and books to compose the
New Testament, the Canonical books.
Several important works were
excluded, branded heretical.

14. www.HappinessAcademyOnline.org
.